Not sure how “hot” the topic is in your area but here in Florida, its gotten pretty big. A few of my subs and myself were putting together some plans should anyone call for addressing this issue. Doesn’t look like alot of homes are affected but if we got a call for one or two, it might be some nice work.
Any thoughts on marketing this service? Would direct contact to attorneys be the way to go or an ad in some publication?
Just brainstorming to try to catch some of the market work if it comes around.
Replies
I think these guys are hiring drywall subs..
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_5thp.6867128apr23,0,4086117.story?track=rss
(just my way of saying be careful out there, esp. in that market!)
"...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
CaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Down here in Ft Myers we have potentially thousands of these houses. So far the only houses I know of that have even been started are being done by Lennar Homes. They estimate 6 months per house and of course they are using their own subs so no work for the rest of us there. Apparently most of the rest will be handled by the insurance companies since most of the builders involved are already bankrupt or too small to do any good.
What is the plan for the fix? Remove and replace all the drywall, hard to imagine the cost of that per house. Or some kind of encapsulation like they will do on asbestos.
John
It involves a complete gut down to the basic structure. They are removing all the insulation, wiring, plumbing, A/C, etc. Of course they have to put the homeowners up while the work is going on. In many cases the cost of the repairs will exceed the total value of the house. It's still being sorted out and I suppose in the interest of time and money will involve moving homeowners into new homes and total demolition of the old ones. We have such a huge inventory of still new but unsold homes here that have lost so much value that it would be far cheaper to move rather than repair. However, this will take years to sort out since the majority of people who have this drywall have no idea they have it.
Edited 4/27/2009 7:38 am ET by florida
I bet when this washes out it's going to involve some sort of class action against Knauf or whoever. I seriously doubt this is going to be a scenario in which individual owners are calling you and they have enough money in their pockets to pay for the work. It'll be more like an insurance job. Of course a few owners will repair their homes and wait for a settlement, but I bet it's only a few. The work on the houses in question is going to be ugly and unhappy--move the owner out, move the contents out, demo all of the drywall and trim, replace all the drywall, repaint, retrim.
Sans mold problem a few years back. Insurance companies pushed back. You don't hear much about it nowadays. Who knows where this will end up.
As lead paint or asbestos with a life of their own or as with mold," Don't look, don't tell".
This was just published.
http://www.coastalcontractor.net/article/250.html
Yeah, I saw that when it came out. Thanks. Interesting stuff.